The present invention relates to coin sorter-counters of the type including a plurality of stacked plates having openings therein to sort the coins, and specifically to the provision of an improved design of pockets on the plates and an improved ejector system for removing coins from the pockets, and improved overload and jam protection systems.
The present invention is an improvement upon the coin sorter-counter that is disclosed and claimed in an application for United States Letters Patent Ser. No. 855,970 filed Nov. 30, 1977 by Jim H. Gomez and Jose E. Davila now U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,801, and the pertinent portions of the disclosure of that prior application are incorporated herein by reference. The coin sorter-counter of the present invention provides for a more rapid and more sure sorting and counting of the coins as compared to the above application and provides in addition protection against overloading of the sorting plates and mechanism to sense a stopping or jamming of the sorting plates with automatic clearance effort thereafter. There also is disclosed as an improvement over the prior patent application the mechanism for automatically counting a predetermined number of a single denomination of coins and stopping operation thereafter.
Other exemplars of coin sorting and counting devices utilized heretofore are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 1,095,981 granted May 5, 1914 to J. J. Farrell, U.S. Pat. No. 1,655,412 granted Jan. 10, 1928 to E. P. Donnellan and U.S. Pat. No. 2,289,002 granted July 2, 1942 to R. B. Fleming et al. None of these prior patented coin sorter-counters can rapidly sort and count coins in a few seconds accurately and without jamming.